FAN REVIEW: Rough cut of Fright Night remake, starring Colin Farrell.

Last Updated on July 23, 2021

Review by: Karate Chop Hawk

I was able to attend an advanced screening of Fright Night 3D a few nights ago. Fright Night is one of my all time favorite vampire movies so the fact they were remaking it and in 3D no less was both exciting and scary. Scary in the sense they would totally screw it up. Some lady from the studio came out and said this was the first time it has ever been shown to an audience blah blah blah (minor spoilers below)

The setting takes place on the outskirts of the Vegas Strip in a suburban neighborhood where people have been disappearing mysteriously for weeks. Anton Yelchin (who was Chekov in the Star Trek reboot) plays the part of Charley Brewster. He and his single mom live next to Jerry Dandrige (Colin Farrell) who works construction at night and  sleeps during the day. He has shades that cover his windows completely, pretty smart place to live for vampires. Christopher Mintz Plasse  (Mclovin) is Charley’s old best friend (now nerdy outcast) and the only kid in high school who is noticing that his classmates have all of sudden started dropping like flies. He tries to warn Charley that the victims throats were torn out and that it had to be a vampire behind it all, one in the form of Charley’s next door neighbor.

Colin Farrell is Jerry Dandridge.

Charley, who wants to look cool in front of his new jock friends laughs off the notion of a killer vampire on the loose and ignores him. The next night Charley and his girlfriend (Imogen Poots from 28 Weeks Later) see Charley’s stripper friend/neighbor going into Jerry’s house, what follows is classic Fright Night. Charlie finds out Jerry is a vampire and that seriously pisses off Jerry. But what made the original more scary was that after Charley’s discovery he and Jerry had a series of cat and mouse mind games, with Charley trying to prove to his mother, his girlfriend, his friends, and later Peter Vincent that Jerry was a monster, in this version, if people dont end up dead first, they just pretty much take Charley for his word.

Charley, knowing he can’t stop Jerry on his own seeks out the aid of Peter Vincent. In the original Fright Night Peter Vincent was played by the great Roddy Mcdowell who was a late night horror movie host. In the remake Peter Vincent is a Criss Angel wannabe who works on the Vegas Strip and as a hobby collects occult artifacts. David Tennant (Doctor Who) plays Peter Vincent, he does an okay job with the role that is given to him. At first Peter doesn’t believe Charley’s claim of Jerry being a vampire (probably the only person who didn’t) but after Jerry brutally attacks Charley, his mom and girlfriend, he starts to listen to him and then they both set out to kill the vampire.

Imogen Poots is Amy.

I dont want to go into too much more because the film itself was not yet completed and to judge it as a whole now would be premature because they could always cut out and add more scenes later. The music had cues from The Dark Knight, hopefully they will be able to have an updated version of Brad Fiedel’s classic Fright Night score and not just have flavor of the month emo bands playing throughout the movie. The 3D wasnt done either but the vampire effects and particularly a car chase scene that occurs towards the end of the  looked very impressive. The overall story though was lacking, you didn’t really care too much about Charley or his mom or girlfriend, his friends were nothing but cannon fodder and by the time you start to like this updated version of Peter Vincent its too late. It was a lot bloodier than the original though, there’s a beheading scene in the movie that is pretty gory and comical. Colin Farrell plays the part of Jerry way over the top, his performance is more comical than menacing.

Overall the unfinished version of the movie was fun but forgettable.